Legislators hope return to Topeka is brief

Most in favor of special session as long as it stays on topic, on schedule

Legislators return to Topeka this week for their first special session since 2005 — a session that, at a cost of about $40,000 per day, leaders have promised will be short and focused.

The session centers on making a change to the state's "Hard 50" sentence of life in prison with 50 years before the first chance at parole. The goal is to allow juries to hand down the sentence rather than judges, in order to comply with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

There are some questions about whether to try and make such a fix retroactive to apply to Hard 50 cases in progress or on appeal, and how effective that might be.

Rep. John Barker, R-Abilene, a former judge who sat on a committee that looked at the Hard 50 fix last week, said it is still worth making the change in a special session to ensure the sentence is available for crimes committed between now and when the Legislature reconvenes for the 2014 regular session in January.

"If you've got some cases out there that are just horrendous we need to have the opportunity to prosecute them under the Hard 50," Barker said. "I've not talked to any legislator that was opposed to coming back and fixing it. But it has to be done quickly. That's the key."

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, has been one of the legislators to cast doubt on the need for a special session, saying he believed gathering the Legislature is little more than a convenient excuse to expedite confirmation hearings for Gov. Sam Brownback's first Court of Appeals nominee, Caleb Stegall, before the public has time to properly vet Stegall and contact the senators who will be doing the confirming.

The Kansas Republican Party blasted Hensley for comments to that effect in a news release last week, noting it was Attorney General Derek Schmidt, not Brownback, who first requested the special session and that a number of Democrats, including lawyer and presumptive gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis have expressed support for the special session.

"Sen. Hensley has, for his own peculiar partisan reasons, proven himself to be out of touch with the leaders of his own party," Clay Barker, Kansas Republican Party executive director, said.

Hensley said he stands by his statements.

The tentative plan is for a House committee to take up the Hard 50 bill Tuesday morning, in the hopes that the full House can vote it through by Tuesday afternoon. During that time, the Senate will get started on confirmation hearings that also include Secretary of Administration Jim Clark, Securities Commissioner Joshua Ney and three Kansas Board of Regents candidates.

Whatever its role in convincing Brownback to call the special session, Stegall's confirmation hearing figures to take center stage as the first such judicial confirmation proceeding since the Legislature approved a switch from a nonpartisan nominating board to the federal model.

The governor's office has declined to make Stegall, Brownback's chief counsel, available for any interviews since he was formally nominated two weeks ago. But information about his writings and speeches has trickled out during the interim, most recently a Lawrence Journal-World report that Stegall and colleagues who ran a Christian commentary website advocated "forcible resistance" to the enforcement of a court order to remove the feeding tube of brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo after her husband received the order following 15 years of legal battles with Schiavo's parents.

Though he and other Democrats have praised Stegall's credentials as a lawyer, Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, said Stegall remains somewhat of a mystery in that she "has no judicial record," having never before served as a judge.

"There are some concerns as to what his judicial activism might be," Haley said.

Stegall's hearing is tentatively scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday and members of the public are welcome to testify if they email written comments to Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, by 10 a.m.

Haley said he is "not confident" the Senate can complete Stegall's confirmation in one day, which would lower the chances to have the Senate take up the Hard 50 bill Wednesday and possibly end the session a day earlier than planned.

Other items that could drag the session to, or past, the full three days allotted, appear minimal.

Rep. Jim Ward and Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, both Wichita Democrats, have said they plan to introduce a bill loosening proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration in order to push through more than 15,000 registrations currently in suspense in advance of local elections.

But leaders of both the House and Senate have suggested they will quash any new bills in order to keep the session focused on the Hard 50.

Those leaders have little power to prevent members from trying to tack amendments onto the Hard 50 legislation, though, if they are related to the underlying bill on murder sentences.

Barker said though he hopes such a contentious item isn’t introduced, an amendment to repeal the death penalty would certainly fit that description.

"It could be very germane to the bill," Barker said.

Death penalty opponents in the House and Senate have said they don't plan to introduce such a measure until 2014, though Haley noted he has one drafted.

"If someone else were to (introduce it this week) I would certainly support it," Haley said.

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self severing, self centered and manipulative. They are like 2 or 3 year olds. They want what they want when they want it. Nothing else matters but getting their way. Shame on them and the people who voted for them.

Republicans blast Hensley for speaking the truth
Who wrote this. The story states that this a special session to cover the hard 50 rule. Hensley doubts it , the Republican Party jumps on him (like that is a surprise). This is the kicker the story then states that they ARE going to cover SEVERAL other items not even related to the hard 50. What is wrong with the people running this paper. If you are going to cast doubts on a mans ability to be truthful, At least don't prove him right in the next paragraph.
Mr Hensley has stood up for the truth many times (with the well being of all Kansas in mind) and been right. While Mr. Brownback has done nothing but tear the state down. He has moved funds from their rightful use to balance his messed up idea of a budget. Attacked women on every front (if you are a woman and you vote for Brownback in the next election shame on you). Mr Brownback claims to be a believer in God, yet he has stolen from the budgeted funds for the poor, disabled, children's health and education, women's health, and the monies used for the roads and other items that make the state great. Only to give it to the richest people he thinks will fund his pipe dream of becoming the president.
The truth is both parties have sold the American people out. Very little good has happened since Nixon was in office and he should have been put in jail. I hate it when I hear people whine about how it's the other party that is destroying the country. People, America has been on a down hill slide for a long time and people keep voting the same people in (here's a hint, quit whining about how it is the other guy’s and take a good hard look at your guy, are they really acting with your best interest in mind).
People must get away from the idea that the party they registered with is their team and you must support your team or you are a traitor. Registration is a big trap used to divide people and make them think that they must support their party or they have failed their team.
Folk's I want to tell you the truth, WE all are on team AMERICA!!!!!! We must start making the country and all the people in the country number ONE. No matter how rich or poor you are it is still one person one vote. Sadly one party is making their main goal to keep you from using that right. The old saying is true. First they come for the poor and weak, you were not either so you did not speak, then they come for what is assumed to be the weaker sex and you are not a woman so you did not speak, then they came for the minority’s and you are not so you do not speak. When they come for you and they will, there will be no one left. Voting is your voice. Any one person or group that is trying to take that from any people is the enemy of all people.
The thing people in power fear most is an educated voter, so study your guy and the issues that effect you, your family and your friends. Then get educated and become feared.